NISSAN has unveiled its latest model to be built in the region which will help secure 1,000s of local jobs.

Hundreds of journalists and senior company executives watched the Juke launched at a military base in Paris – with Nissan declaring the new car is a major vote of confidence in the North East and will boost its sales.

The five-door compact car has a “cross-over” look like its Qashqai older brother, also built in Sunderland, and Nissan believes the bold styling will appeal to motorists bored with dull-looking traditional hatchbacks.

The Juke, offering sporty styling with practical driving, will start rolling off the production line in August, with around 100,000 of the vehicles built every year at Nissan’s local plant for export across Europe.

Around 20,000 are expected to be sold in the UK alone annually.

Nissan’s boss in the UK, Paul Wilcox, praised the efforts of local workers in securing production of the Juke.

“It is a massive vote of confidence because in Nissan every project has got to go through a competition,” he told The Chronicle at yesterday’s event.

Trevor Mann, senior vice president for manufacturing, Europe, said: “Today is a celebration of the fact we have got another car that supports the Nissan brand overall and for the North East region it continues to support the local economy and the workforce in the Sunderland plant.

“As you know we are the biggest car plant in the UK in terms of cars produced.”

He added: “This will maintain 1,000 jobs in Sunderland. We normally talk about double that in the supply business.”

And he predicted the new car would be as successful as the Qashqai, with 500,000 of models sold in the last three years.

“We believe that this will follow in its big brother’s footsteps,” said Mr Mann.